Poorva Garg > Recent Status Updates

The last few pages feel like an intellectual version of a middle school English guide. Maybe it is required in a style guide but did not work for me.

The chapter on arcs of coherence was the most practical one to improve your writing - with advice on grammar, on the kind of wording without influencing your personal style so much.

Just read the chapter "The web, the tree and the string". It had some very practical advice on grammar and how to use it to make your writing clearer. Pinker explained very well how memorizing any rule is useless and focused on the reasons behind the common rules.

Just read the chapter of the curse of knowledge. Pinker is humorous in his attempt to convince that curse of knowledge exists

The first two chapters gave useful insights for classic style writing. It explained well why hedging, signposting, use of passive voice are undesirable.

Just read a very detailed and thorough account of Gupta dynasty and independent kingdoms that rose after it. In these pages, the book also talked about various foreign invasions in India and gives interesting account of incidents during that time - with few details of the sources - mostly inscriptions.

Completed the second part of the book which covers the period from 600 BC to 300 AD. A lot of things makes sense now. For example, historians have found evidence in favour of existence of a historical figure named Krishna who wrote Bhagvad Gita and the description of influence on Buddhism on Indian life was fascinating to read.

The last chapter I read talked about political scene after the fall of Magadha empire which was exactly the point since when my idea of history was blurred. It is clearer but still blurred.

The book until now has connected a lot of dots for me between current age Hindu practices and their origin in early Aryan society (in 3000 BC). The details of political history have been very dry which could have been made interesting but the details of social lives have been very rich with perspective from the writer.